'Theories of Integration in a New Context: The Gulf Cooperation Council', in Kenneth P. Thomas and Mary Ann Tetreault (eds), Racing to Regionalize: Democracy, Capitalism, and Regional Political Economy, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, pp. 7-31; 31a-d.

Regionalism has a long but checkered history in the Arab world. For most of the twentieth century, efforts to promote integration among Arab states have been predicated upon the emergence of a dominant leadership capable of orchestrating immediate, comprehensive unification (Bishara, 19831984). Such an approach characterized the short-lived United Arab Republic (1958-1962), as well as less successful experiments such as the stillborn Federation of Arab Republics (1971-1972) and the abortive Syrian-Iraqi union of 1978-1979 (Mufti, 1996). Much rarer have been projects designed to accomplish regional integration in a gradual, incremental fashion. Of the latter, the most successful to date has been the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, commonly known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC has managed not only to survive a succession of severe challenges since its founding in the spring of 1981 but also to lay a fragile foundation for greater unity among its six memberstates: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Oman.